Chong Yam, his wife, brother and two children fled Khmer Rouge regime
Published in the Oct. 28 – Nov. 10, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi
Photo by Robert Airoldi
Kim and Chong Yam own and operate O’Henry’s Donuts, a shop they purchased in 1989.Photo by Robert Airoldi
Kim and Chong Yam own and operate O’Henry’s Donuts, a shop they purchased in 1989.
Chong Yam has owned and operated O’Henry’s Donuts for more than 26 years, getting in at 3 a.m. – or earlier if there’s a large order to bake – seven days a week. Despite that intense work schedule, it’s a lot easier than living under the Khmer Rouge Communist Party regime in Cambodia.
While the Khmer Rouge was in power from 1975 to 1979, members of the Communist party set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and genocidal massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly 2 million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders.
“It was basically a subsistence existence,” Yam, 61, said. “If they found you growing (food) for yourself you were shot. It was a very ugly lifestyle.”
In 1982, Yam, his wife Kim, brother Vann and the couple’s oldest children, Katherine and Will, fled their homeland, settling in a refugee camp in Thailand for two years. In 1984, his aunt in Seattle sponsored him and a relief agency paid for the family to fly to the United States. He eventually paid back the debt.
The family lived in Seattle for about eight months. Yam and his brother picked raspberries to earn money. He learned to speak English at an adult school in Seattle, but admits “most I’ve learned in the shop talking to customers.”
From Seattle, the family moved to Los Angeles — where there was “more work and better weather” – to live with cousins. It was during his time in Southern California that Yam found himself in one of his relative’s donut shops making the delicious pastries with his brother.
After about a year in L.A., the family moved again — this time for a final time to Morgan Hill where he and his cousin bought the iconic O’Henry’s in 1989. Yam eventually bought out his cousin. At one time, Yam and partners owned the Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Jose shops. The three were eventually split among the partners with Chong running the Morgan Hill shop. He and his wife bought a home in 1989 where they raised their three children and where they still live.
Yam said he enjoys the “easy-going” atmosphere in Morgan Hill. He knows his regulars by name and considers them part of his extended family.
“They come in and say hello and everyone’s like a friend,” Yam said. “I like to see all the customers smile.”
O’Henry’s is open from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays Yam allows himself an extra 30 minutes of sleep, opening at 5:30 a.m.
The popular diner offers a slew of delicious treats. The ice cream, breakfast bagels and croissants are fairly new additions to the menu, but the donuts and hamburgers have been a staple across the years. They’ll also fill donut holes with jelly or custard at a customer’s request.
Yam uses the same molds, some of which are more than 30 years old, and all his donuts are hand frosted. No assembly lines here, he boasted.
It’s tough work that most people won’t do, but learning the trade early in life and buying the Morgan Hill shop provided the Yams with a living that allowed them to send all three children to college.
Katherine Fisher, 39, graduated from Santa Clara University, Will Yam, 34, graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Sandi Yam, 29, graduated from the University if Los Angeles, Berkeley.
“My kids don’t want my job and I don’t want them to have the job,” said the grandfather of four with a fifth grandchild on the way.
“It’s tough work,” son Will said.
Yam has three brothers in San Jose, all of whom also own donut shops. He said has no immediate plans to retire and still enjoys working alongside his wife.
“My wife said she’d never leave Morgan Hill,” he said.
