Rice Cooker on Shabbot

Question

Shalom.. Saw a previous post about using a rice cooker in conjunction with a Shabbos clock to cook rice on Shabbos. 1.Just want to confirm whether or not it was ok to add the ingredients shabbos day before the cooker switches on (as opposed to adding prior to shabbos) 2. If a non-jew were to add the ingredients on shabbos (with the timer preset by a jew before shabbos) would there be an issue of bishul akum? thanks, regards