As a teenager more interested in partying than school, he didn’t always get along with his father. But their fishing trips together were a bright spot, and cemented Mr. Truong’s love of the outdoors. Unlike many fathers in this part of Virginia, Mr. Truong’s never taught him to hunt. He had fought alongside Green Berets during the Vietnam War and had no interest in picking up another gun.

But to the son, hunting seemed like the next logical step — especially as his cooking career took off.

He started with deer. Waterfowl came a few years later, after Mr. Truong became the executive chef at Kybecca, in Fredericksburg, a city of about 28,000 that serves both as a tourist town for history buffs and a commuter town for people working in Quantico or Arlington.

It was a French-fries-and-bison-sliders kind of place, but Mr. Truong slowly started to change the menu, adding Chesapeake Bay oysters and sophisticated entrees that used vegetables from local farms. One of his suppliers was Blenheim Organic Gardens, run by Rebecca and Lawrence Latané, who is a descendant of George Washington’s family. They live on about 200 acres of farmland that has been in the Washington family for centuries.

Geese migrating to and from the Ungava Peninsula in far northern Quebec like to winter over in the Latanés’ grain fields. That makes for good hunting. One day, the couple’s son , Cameron Latané, invited Mr. Truong and Ms. Owen to join him and his father on a goose hunt. They have been close friends and hunting partners ever since.