Sunday dinner was a big deal in Chef Julian Sarjani’s childhood home. 

“Every Sunday was like a huge table at our house. I grew up with my grandma’s and my mom’s recipes,” Julian says as he fondly recalls family gathering around a table full of homemade dishes. 

Decades later, flavors from Julian’s earliest memories of food are coming out of his kitchen at Amore Italian Ristorante in Clermont. 

Julian grew up with strong Italian influences in Albania. His grandmother was born in Italy and his mother spent her early childhood there. 

Julian came to the United States in 1999 shortly after graduating college and immediately entered the restaurant business. He worked for his uncle in Sarasota before eventually joining Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where he moved from prep cook to trainer and then management. 

The experience taught him well. “To open your own restaurant, you cannot be just a good chef,” Julian says. 

In 2008, Julian and his brother opened Fratelli’s in downtown Orlando. Julian envisioned risotto, veal, seafood and the dishes he loved creating, but downtown workers on short lunch breaks largely wanted pizza, wings and familiar favorites. 

He adjusted but never forgot the restaurant he really wanted: a sit-down place where he could cook the food he treasured and build relationships with returning guests. 

It took years, but he finally reached his goal and with his wife, Alda, opened Amoré on Jan. 4, 2023 after a post-pandemic buildout stretched to nearly two years. 

This time, the old recipes came with him. 

Some originated with his mother and grandmother. Others came from years spent in restaurant kitchens and still others are Julian’s own creations. 

The result is Italian food that may taste a little different to diners accustomed to Americanized Italian fare and that’s intentional.

Julian points to Alfredo as an example. In Italy, he says, panna, or heavy cream, may be used sparingly to add creaminess or alter a flavor rather than becoming the foundation of a heavy cream sauce. Spaghetti and meatballs, another American favorite, isn’t traditionally served as a single dish in Italy. 

Still, Julian has learned to balance tradition with what his guests enjoy. 

“I want to try to keep my authenticity,” he says. “I want to try to keep my origin, my roots, but I want my guests to enjoy what they like to eat.”  

That means familiar dishes share the menu with recipes and techniques closer to what Julian grew up eating and he takes pride in delivering the flavor he wants. Sauces are made from scratch, garlic is not treated timidly and select pastas are made fresh and served al dente, including pappardelle and the tagliatelle used for Amore’s Tuesday cheese wheel special. That table-side dish combines fresh egg pasta with garlic Parmesan sauce before Julian uses flame to melt the cheese and tosses the pasta inside the wheel. 

“People love the cheese wheel because people like interacting with the chef,” he says. 

Still, Julian leaves himself room to experiment by offering varying chef specials. His Chef’s Cut Veal Chop is prepared differently from time to time—perhaps Parmigiana one week, Marsala another, or wrapped with prosciutto and sage. The fish of the day allows him to work with fresh selections ranging from grouper and snapper to branzino, halibut and swordfish. 

“It gives me things to play around with and a way to use my creativity to experiment with new dishes and new sauces,” he says. 

When diners ask Julian to name his favorite, he can’t name just one. “They’re all my babies,” he says, adding that although some are spicier, some more lemony and some give him more room to experiment, they all belong in the restaurant he spent years imagining. 

His menu is about consistency. 

Julian knows some customers return for a specific dish they loved so his cooks follow recipes to deliver the same taste weeks or months later. 

Amoré isn’t simply a restaurant. And service is not a strong enough word for what Julian wants people to feel the minute they walk through the door, a philosophy that sounds a lot like those crowded Sunday tables where his love of cooking began. 

“Everybody who’s working here is my family,” he says. “Everybody who comes here is my guest.”  

Capri sauce 

Veal Chop alla Parmigiana 

Cheesecake with Berry Topping

Cheesecake crust  

Cheesecake  

Berry Sauce

Rigatoni Alla Vodka

Photos: Nicole Hamel