Filet (also spelled fillet) means a piece of meat or fish with the bones removed. When you order a filet of salmon at a restaurant, you get a smooth piece of fish without any small bones to pick out. A filet mignon is a tender cut of beef from the center of the cow, prized because it's so soft you can almost cut it with a fork.

Chefs use precise techniques for removing bones while keeping the meat intact and attractive. A skilled chef can filet a whole fish in seconds, sliding the knife along the backbone to separate the meat cleanly.

You'll see both spellings, filet and fillet, used in different contexts. American restaurants often use filet for fancy cuts of meat, while fillet appears more often when talking about the process of removing bones or when referring to fish. Either spelling is correct, though filet tends to sound fancier, which is why steakhouses like using it on their menus.