The "restaurant-within-a-restaurant" concept, where diners sit inside a restaurant kitchen, is profiled

Don’t expect coddling from “Top Chef” contestant Bryan Voltaggio just because you’ve paid $121 to sit two feet away while he runs the kitchen at Volt in Frederick, Maryland.

The owner/chef isn’t being rude. He’s just concentrating on preparing the 21 delightful dishes served to diners at Table 21, inside the kitchen of his restaurant about 50 miles from Washington and Baltimore.

The “restaurant-within-a-restaurant” concept, also found at Jose Andres’s six-seat Minibar in Washington’s Cafe Atlantico, gives chefs a chance to show off their artistry and, in least one case, their mastery of liquid nitrogen.

At Volt, four diners sit inside the busy kitchen, so close to the action they could be asked to dice an onion or two. At Minibar, six people sit on bar chairs in front of a counter. Behind the counter is a small kitchen crammed with so many cooking gadgets that it looks like a combination of “Iron Chef” and “Bill Nye, the Science Guy.”

Andres has more unusual ingredients (sea urchin), odd combinations (cotton candy-wrapped eel) and techniques to transform the familiar into the exotic (honey and freeze-dried yogurt). It’s a carnival filled with novelties, highlighted by a mojito in a gelatin bubble.

‘Top Chef’

Voltaggio’s presentation has fewer jaw-dropping fireworks, but offers more meals in miniature and individual items that you might want as an entree.

Kitchen diners at Volt, located in a converted red-brick mansion in Frederick’s historic district, are surrounded by waiters and cooks, most of whom have large arm tattoos like Voltaggio.

Voltaggio finished second to his brother Michael on the sixth season of “Top Chef,” where chefs compete before a panel of judges. At Volt, Voltaggio personally and quietly directs the cooks, inspects each plate of food and hands them to waiters with directions on where to deliver them.

Diners at Table 21 get to taste a tiny version of virtually everything on his menu. While nibbling, they can watch the cooks pull brioche out of a large toaster and delicately place sizzling pieces of sea bass on artfully arranged plates.

The standouts are dried prosciutto chips with potato foam; sweet and smoky slow-braised pork belly with calypso beans; monkfish with ruby quinoa and black trumpet mushrooms; and a guacamole macaroon with intense avocado flavor. Voltaggio concentrates on local ingredients, and the cheese ravioli with butternut squash is a savory example.

Dragon’s Popcorn

Andres’s Minibar, which costs $120 a head, is on the second floor of the three-story Cafe Atlantico. On a recent weekend, the two chefs on duty (Andres wasn’t there) described their backgrounds, their mentors and their favorite restaurants in almost nonstop patter.

They assembled and presented the dishes, describing them and suggesting how many bites were needed to consume them. Sometimes they urged speed, lest the dainty dishes melt or explode.

The food, like the atmosphere, can be exotic.

For instance, there’s an “olive oil bon-bon’ that looks like a hard-shelled balloon and “dragon’s breath” caramel popcorn, prepared with liquid nitrogen so that when you munch on it, steam pours out of your mouth. If that’s not weird enough, sample some chocolate-covered bacon.

Philly Cheese steak

More down to earth is salmon wrapped in pineapple and a twist on the Philly cheesesteak -- cheese-filled brioche topped with thin slices of beef. The corn with Huitlacoche features Mexican truffles so dark and earthy you may be tempted to pick up a shovel.

Volt is chilly and professional, while Minibar is friendly and a touch eccentric. Volt’s food fulfills, while Minibar’s entertains. Combine the two and you’d have the perfect dining experience.

Volt Restaurant is at 228 North Market St., Frederick, Maryland; Information: +1-301-696-8658; http://www.voltrestaurant.com.

Cafe Atlantico is at 405 8th St., Washington. Information: +1-202-393-0812; http://www.cafeatlantico.com.