0:00:01.129,0:00:05.782
♪ Cambodian music ♪
0:00:38.840,0:00:42.169
(Uncle Sam) Well, when I came here in 1994
0:00:42.169,0:00:46.956
to eat one donut you didn't realize[br]how much work goes into one donut
0:00:47.807,0:00:51.256
until you actually go into[br]doing the donuts.
0:00:52.579,0:00:57.150
You know, it takes quite a bit[br]just to make one donut.
0:00:57.950,0:01:00.248
I start off by finding a location.
0:01:00.448,0:01:02.123
If I find a location,
0:01:02.454,0:01:07.497
I get a family that needs a donut shop [br]to go to look at the location,
0:01:07.497,0:01:09.858
and if they like it,[br]we negotiate the price,
0:01:10.514,0:01:13.781
and if the price is right,[br]I build it for them and turn them the key.
0:01:14.408,0:01:17.364
You know, most of them[br]already know how to make donuts.
0:01:17.364,0:01:19.525
They worked for a family member,
0:01:19.525,0:01:22.782
you know, they've already worked[br]for like two, three or five years...
0:01:23.402,0:01:25.643
to save up the money[br]to start up the business.
0:01:34.754,0:01:36.947
(Chandara Meas) When I came to the States,
0:01:36.947,0:01:38.805
I don't have no relatives in here,
0:01:38.805,0:01:40.604
so I don't speak that much English,
0:01:40.604,0:01:42.631
so I gotta start to learn English
0:01:42.631,0:01:44.551
and start to work to support myself...
0:01:45.511,0:01:47.356
and I don't have chance[br]to go back to college,
0:01:47.356,0:01:50.668
so I ended up [br]at a donut shop right now.
0:01:52.348,0:01:54.559
Most Cambodians who take us,
0:01:54.559,0:01:57.098
they own a donut shop, [br]they run a donut business...
0:01:59.789,0:02:02.193
Yeah, you know, it's hard to do it,
0:02:02.412,0:02:05.305
not many people want to do that job[br]as I'm doing right now.
0:02:10.954,0:02:13.703
From 1975 to 1979,
0:02:15.428,0:02:19.246
there's the Khmer Rouge ran by Pol Pot.
0:02:20.216,0:02:21.979
At that time I was 10 years old,
0:02:21.979,0:02:25.444
I still remember when they tortured...
0:02:25.444,0:02:28.262
a lot of people dying [br]by starving and sickness...
0:02:29.192,0:02:30.818
most of them were killing people.
0:02:33.432,0:02:34.428
That was a hard time
0:02:34.428,0:02:38.035
and that was the worst thing [br]that happened in the world.
0:02:39.581,0:02:46.062
Most Cambodians escaped from the war [br]in 1981after the Khmer Rouge regime,
0:02:47.372,0:02:49.702
and when they started to come here,
0:02:50.916,0:02:52.682
people don't speak that much English,
0:02:54.622,0:02:57.411
so that's why they started[br]working at donut shops
0:02:57.411,0:03:00.102
because most of them what they do [br]are family business --
0:03:01.501,0:03:03.289
This is my wife's nephew.
0:03:03.289,0:03:06.065
He just came [br]to the United States last year.
0:03:06.882,0:03:10.069
He came in a special case[br]they call "Lottery Visa".
0:03:10.069,0:03:12.762
He's a lucky one [br]that won a lottery green card.
0:03:16.452,0:03:20.572
The business we just opened--[br]it is still kind of slow, it's brand new.
0:03:21.202,0:03:24.168
Hopefully, we can own it [br]for a long time until we get...
0:03:25.053,0:03:26.225
you know, some profit...
0:03:26.885,0:03:30.148
to take care of my family, my kid...
0:03:30.875,0:03:32.446
go to school, go to college...
0:03:33.394,0:03:34.855
I have a beautiful kid.
0:03:39.095,0:03:42.247
It's like, if you work for a company,
0:03:42.247,0:03:44.738
you have a different schedule[br]than the donut people.
0:03:44.911,0:03:49.001
The donut people, we wake up [br]at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,
0:03:49.491,0:03:53.308
and we'll be done by 12:00 or 1:00 o'clock[br]and take a couple-of-hours-nap
0:03:53.308,0:03:56.259
and, you know, get together and then,
0:03:56.259,0:03:59.419
go to sleep, and wake up,[br]and go to make some more donuts!
0:04:00.833,0:04:05.791
(man singing Karaoke in Cambodian)
0:04:21.114,0:04:23.119
(end of singing)
0:04:24.761,0:04:28.046
Yeah, we like to get together[br]because, you know,
0:04:28.046,0:04:29.460
we work seven days a week.
0:04:30.103,0:04:33.130
You know, some wake up at one,
0:04:33.130,0:04:34.429
some of us wake up at two,
0:04:34.429,0:04:35.799
some of us at three...
0:04:38.192,0:04:39.779
and we work seven days a week,
0:04:39.779,0:04:42.952
you know, this is the only fun[br]that we have.
0:04:44.763,0:04:48.179
♪ Cambodian music ♪
0:04:48.510,0:04:53.146
I would say 95% of the donut shops[br]in Texas, not just in Houston,
0:04:53.976,0:04:56.896
in Texas is Cambodian-people-owned.
0:04:58.870,0:05:00.509
One one-big -family, that's all.
0:05:01.018,0:05:04.402
♪ Cambodian music ♪
0:05:39.530,0:05:42.372
My parents bought the store in 1994.
0:05:43.292,0:05:46.836
They would always bring us on weekends[br]because we have school on weekdays.
0:05:46.836,0:05:50.308
I really dread waking up on the weekend[br]just to come make donut, you know.
0:05:51.582,0:05:54.329
They told me one day[br]I'm going to own my business,
0:05:54.329,0:05:56.950
and I kind of say[br]I didn't want to do this.
0:05:56.950,0:06:01.342
This is not my first choice[br]of what I really wanted to do.
0:06:04.145,0:06:07.196
For me, I thought going to school[br]was what I really wanted to do,
0:06:07.196,0:06:08.774
I wanted to experience that life.
0:06:09.815,0:06:13.362
One day I woke up and I realized[br]I didn't wanna work for somebody else.
0:06:14.299,0:06:17.592
I called my mom and I told her[br]I wanted to come back home...
0:06:17.592,0:06:18.605
and try this again,
0:06:18.605,0:06:21.261
and she was very excited,[br]very happy for me
0:06:21.261,0:06:24.660
that I can kind of woke up[br]and I wanted to do this.
0:06:28.199,0:06:29.633
I get up at four o'clock,
0:06:30.713,0:06:34.148
and my sisters, [br]they get up at about 2:00-2:30,
0:06:34.148,0:06:38.280
they're closer to the plant[br]so they wake up earlier,
0:06:39.100,0:06:40.582
to go to the plant and--
0:06:41.152,0:06:42.325
I'm fortunate to have
0:06:43.395,0:06:44.655
a little bit of both,
0:06:44.655,0:06:48.746
so I can stay in bed a little longer[br]and they can--
0:06:50.740,0:06:52.953
So when I first got to Houston[br]I didn't know--
0:06:52.953,0:06:56.119
I thought my family was [br]the only one that's doing donuts.
0:06:56.656,0:06:57.766
I come to find out
0:06:57.766,0:07:00.683
a lot of Cambodian people[br]have done this way before we have...
0:07:01.496,0:07:04.693
You know, it's like a community[br]of helping out each other, you know,
0:07:04.693,0:07:07.812
like, people were telling each other[br]what can make you successful
0:07:07.812,0:07:10.682
and I don't think anybody[br]was envious of each other,
0:07:10.682,0:07:13.705
they just wanted to see[br]our culture succeed,
0:07:15.265,0:07:17.315
and the donut business [br]is where it started
0:07:17.315,0:07:19.579
for a lot of these Cambodian cultures.
0:07:20.485,0:07:21.692
It's definitely a dream
0:07:21.692,0:07:24.229
that a lot of people wanted[br]when they are in Cambodia,
0:07:24.229,0:07:25.639
to have their own place.
0:07:26.169,0:07:27.390
Back in Cambodia,
0:07:28.173,0:07:30.355
it's a fast, fast-pace life.
0:07:30.355,0:07:33.129
Every day is a struggle to find,
0:07:33.129,0:07:35.404
you know, money and food for the family.
0:07:35.404,0:07:38.429
It made me realized[br]what I have out here in America.
0:07:38.429,0:07:40.226
As hard as I think I work down here,
0:07:40.226,0:07:43.685
I think that they work harder over there[br]to make a smaller living.
0:07:49.753,0:07:51.544
My first place when I came,
0:07:51.544,0:07:54.739
I learned in the one Donald's Donut[br]on el Dorado in Webster.
0:07:56.156,0:07:58.932
And then I breached it out to[br]a Yankee Doodle Donuts.
0:08:00.816,0:08:07.106
And then, that's when I met David[br]on the El Dorado store.
0:08:07.406,0:08:09.459
I was teaching him since he was young.
0:08:10.166,0:08:14.879
I taught him probably [br]about five years, I believe.
0:08:15.715,0:08:18.247
(David Buehrer) My name is David Buehrer[br]and this is Morningstar.
0:08:21.922,0:08:25.128
(Uncle Sam) Most of the time[br]I don't ask for help but, you know--
0:08:25.128,0:08:28.322
It surprises me it came up from David
0:08:28.322,0:08:31.226
just to ask me to get into [br]a business partnership with him.
0:08:35.015,0:08:37.176
(David B.) This is the first thing [br]I'd learned with--
0:08:37.176,0:08:39.705
when I was in high school[br]was how to roll kolaches
0:08:39.705,0:08:43.239
and Sam's family [br]they would let me roll a kolache
0:08:43.239,0:08:46.047
and they would immediately[br]unroll the kolache,
0:08:46.047,0:08:48.759
and then they would roll it again[br]to make sure it was perfect.
0:08:48.759,0:08:52.201
And for like the first three [br]or four months of me working there
0:08:52.201,0:08:54.634
they never served any of my kolaches.[br](chuckles)
0:08:55.884,0:08:59.623
One day they just saw one of them[br]and decided it was okay,
0:08:59.623,0:09:02.176
and from then on, [br]they let me roll kolaches for them.
0:09:02.176,0:09:03.353
But it took like months
0:09:03.353,0:09:06.379
before they even serve [br]one of the kolaches that I rolled.
0:09:06.379,0:09:08.916
It shows the attention to details,[br]a level of quality,
0:09:08.916,0:09:11.314
and maybe, I just needed to learn more.
0:09:11.314,0:09:14.149
But it took months to learn [br]how to roll the kolaches right.
0:09:15.683,0:09:18.506
(David B.) One of the things[br]we wanted to do with Morningtar
0:09:18.506,0:09:20.501
is bring in the technique that we learned
0:09:20.501,0:09:22.297
from the Cambodian donut shops
0:09:22.297,0:09:26.755
and apply it to the foodie nature[br]that specialty copy exists in.
0:09:26.755,0:09:30.249
We have a lot of bartenders, and chefs,[br]and sommelier friends,
0:09:30.249,0:09:32.709
and a lot of our donuts [br]are inspired by them.
0:09:34.152,0:09:35.724
Yeah, at one point in high school
0:09:35.724,0:09:38.584
I was driving an hour [br]at two in the morning
0:09:38.584,0:09:42.236
to go and learn how to make donuts[br]in Magnolia, Texas, with Sam.
0:09:42.236,0:09:46.085
And then, an hour back,[br]and then go to school by 7:30...
0:09:46.655,0:09:48.938
but, you know,[br]you do what you gotta do to learn.
0:09:49.233,0:09:51.340
(Uncle Sam) In the nineties, you know,
0:09:51.340,0:09:55.910
that's when the donuts started here[br]in Houston by the Cambodian community,
0:09:55.910,0:10:00.639
and to now is a long time to me, like...
0:10:00.639,0:10:02.932
we feel like, it needs change,
0:10:02.932,0:10:05.145
it needs some time to change, you know.
0:10:06.468,0:10:08.712
(Uncle Sam) And then, [br]all of a sudden one day,
0:10:08.712,0:10:13.928
he said-- he calls me pou[br]--which is Cambodian like, uncle--
0:10:14.355,0:10:19.496
and he said, "Would you like to do[br]a donut shop and a coffee together?",
0:10:19.496,0:10:21.909
I said, "Sure", [br]you know, I never expected it.
0:10:25.792,0:10:27.662
In the future,
0:10:27.662,0:10:30.999
the new generations[br]they know that I own this store
0:10:30.999,0:10:33.976
and they want to do something like this.
0:10:36.472,0:10:39.785
I don't want to do[br]the same thing every day.
0:10:39.785,0:10:43.406
Especially, when doing it [br]for almost 20 years.
0:10:44.319,0:10:46.797
You're doing the same thing every day,
0:10:46.797,0:10:52.693
and to me, I wouldn't want to go back[br]and do the same shop
0:10:52.693,0:10:54.317
like a mom-and-pop shop.
0:10:55.009,0:10:59.823
This is the shop that I want to do [br]as the next one...
0:10:59.823,0:11:00.785
and the next one,
0:11:00.785,0:11:02.268
and the next one...
0:11:05.036,0:11:09.882
People have no idea [br]what go into a single donut here.
0:11:12.737,0:11:15.982
English subtitles by[br]Jenny Lam-Chowdhury