A cooking appliance includes a base upon which a pot is supported, with a stirrer configured as a lid, for closing an open top of the pot. A tool coupled to a motorized drive of the stirrer extends downwardly into the pot. A heating element is coupled to the base and resiliently biased outwardly from the base to engage the base of the pot. A latch mechanism is provided for releasably connecting the pot to the base. The motorized drive includes a planetary gear set mounted coaxially with a pot axis, and a tool coupling is connected to a planet gear of the planetary gear set to drive the stirring tool in an orbital motion.