Is steam hotter than boiling water when you are cooking over a bain-marie? I know that steam cools as it mixes with cold air, but in a bain marie you have a pot suspended over boiling water and the steam gets in contact with the bottom surface of your suspended pot in a somewhat contained environment. Help
Some cooks argue that you get a gentle cooking with the steam trap under your pot. I disagree. I think if you let your suspended pot touch the water and you make sure your water is just hot, you will get a gentler effect. What are your thoughts?

In terms of temperature, steam and boiling water are at the same temperature, but in terms of energy, steam has more energy than boiling water.

I don't know about cooking, but if the experienced cooks say that steam cooking is gentler, then I'll trust them.

In some way, boiling water has many bubbles coming out of it while it heats up something while steam just condenses releasing heat. So, I'll be more in favour of the cooks, sorry.

Sorry unknown008, but you are not exactly correct in your answer. You stated that in terms of energy steam has more energy than boiling water. This is true only if you are dealing with the same mass of water and steam.
If the suspended pot touches the water then you have a large amount of water in contact with the pot which transfers are large amount of heat. If the pot is suspended over the boiling water then only a small amount of steam is in contact with the suspended pot(steam is much less dense thast water), thus reducing the heat transferred to the suspended pot giving a gentle cooking.