74. The Incredible But True Story of the Los Angeles 'Donut King' with Director & Filmmaker Alice Gu

LifeHacksLA - Hacking the Best of Los Angeles

74. No matter what neighborhood you live in Los Angeles you likely don't have to go far to find a locally owned donut shop. In fact Los Angeles is known as the donut capital of the United States. But did you know that 70% to 80% of independently run donut shops in LA are owned by Cambodians? Yes those ubiquitous pink donut boxes you see all over our city came from the Cambodian American community. And the story about how all this came about can be traced back to the fascinating true life story of a man named Ted Ngoy. Ted came to Los Angeles as a penniless refugee and only 3 years later he was a self made millionaire. He didn't stop there and helped hundreds of his fellow refugees find similar success in the Donut industry and eventually became known as the Donut King of Los Angeles. But with every story of a meteoric rise there is often a meteoric fall and Ted Ngoy's journey includes both. And despite all the past success these Cambodian families have had in LA in this industry they are slowly shrinking market share and closing shops. Our guest in this episode, talented director Alice Gu, has made a masterpiece documentary called 'Donut King' which goes into detail about Ted Ngoy's captivating true life story and the entire history of the Donut King and its dominance over these beloved deserts in Los Angeles. To download and watch the film you can find it on multiple platforms here: https://www.donutkingmovie.com/ You can follow the film on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/thedonutkingfilm/ and to follow Alice Gu and her future projects follow her at: https://www.instagram.com/gubird/ You can find LifehacksLA at: https://lifehacksla.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/lifehacksla/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lifehacksla/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lifehacksla/support