Historical figure

Ted Ngoy

Ted Ngoy is a Cambodian refugee and businessman who developed a chain of doughnut shops in California.[1][2] His career helped other Chinese Cambodians enter the trade.[3]

A glass display case of glazed, chocolate and sugar doughnuts, a steel coffee urn and stacked white cups on the counter, and red-topped chrome stools, before a wide window onto a quiet street with tall palms and low shops under a pink and gold dawn sky
Illustration inspired by a small family doughnut shop in Southern California in the late 1970s

Arrival and first shop

Ngoy arrived in the United States in 1975 and passed through Camp Pendleton.[3][1] He worked for Winchell’s and entered its management-training program.[1][4]

Accounts date his purchase of Christy’s in La Habra to 1976 or 1977; one dates it to 1979, after he ran a Winchell’s on Newport Beach’s Balboa pier. He appears in a 1977 photograph outside his first shop.[1][3][4]

Shops and sponsorship

The business grew across California, with differing counts: 25 shops by 1979; a peak of about 65; and a chain of 32 shops between San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area.[2][1][3] Ngoy has said he sponsored more than 100 Cambodian families seeking to move to the United States.[1] He also trained relatives and helped other Chinese Cambodian shopkeepers.[3]

His businesses later declined. Accounts attribute the loss of his shops to gambling, debts, failed investments and other problems.[2][3]

Memoir and film

Ngoy’s memoir, The Donut King, was published on May 7, 2018.[5] Alice Gu made the 2020 documentary The Donut King about him.[1][2] The film aired on Independent Lens on May 24, 2021.[6]

References 6
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 LAist, 'Donut King' Ted Ngoy's Life Is Even More Convoluted Than The Documentary About Him (October 29, 2020)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Khmer Post Asia, Rise and Fall of Cambodian Refugee ‘Donut King’ Charted in Award-Winning Film (April 6, 2020)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Chinese-Cambodian Donut Makers in Orange County: Case Studies of Family Labor and Socioeconomic Adaptations (undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 PBS SoCal (Lost LA), The Cambodian American Reign of Doughnut Shops Began in This La Habra Shop (April 13, 2022)
  5. ↑ Foreword Reviews, The Donut King: The Rags to Riches Story of a Poor Immigrant Who Changed the World (May/June 2018)
  6. ↑ PBS PressRoom, INDEPENDENT LENS: The Donut King (May 24, 2021)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 17:25.