How Winchell’s Accidentally Created the Donut King

In the late 70s Winchell's accidentally trained the mogul that changed donuts in Southern California forever.

The Donut King himself Ted Nguyen

Winchell's had an apprenticeship program to train GMs of their locations and then let them run them.

Ted learned from Winchell's and then went out and creatively acquired 70+ more locations all through SoCal.

Ted was from Cambodia and hired friends and family to step in manage each new shop for him.

That’s why the BEST donut shops that you’ll EVER have here in SoCal are Cambodian owned/ operated.

Most are ran by the children of those original GMs.

Sad ending for Ted as he got bit by the gambling bug and sold off all of his shops to those GMs to cover his debts

BUT, the quality of the donut shops still remain. One in particular just down the street from our house.

On Christmas however, they’re closed.

So we have to settle for Winchell's.

It might have started the donut king empire, but It is certainly not up to par