Stjuarte un mājražotāja: kā Agnese atrada savu aizraušanos un biznesu “Skriķu našķi”

Agnese Rūtiņa balances a career as a flight attendant with a growing home-based bakery business, a unique combination that has garnered attention in Latvia. The Skrīveros resident turned a hobby into a small enterprise, “Skriķu našķi,” five years ago, and finds both pursuits deeply fulfilling.

Rūtiņa creates macarons, cakes, and other pastries while as well managing life in Skrīveros with her husband, Lauris, and their two children, Beatrise and Gregor. The family balances their home life with work commitments in Riga.

Rūtiņa’s path to entrepreneurship began after a period working as an interior designer, a profession she found unfulfilling. A conversation with a friend who was a flight attendant sparked her interest in aviation. After eight weeks of training and passing the required exams, she joined airBaltic.

“I traveled quite a bit even before that, I like aviation, but I’ve been working as a flight attendant for over 11 years. You see the world, you travel, it’s a very, very interesting job,” she said.

While she continues to enjoy her work as a flight attendant, Rūtiņa has reduced her flight schedule in recent years due to the demands of raising two young children and the distance between her home, nearly 60 miles from the airport, and her growing business.

Rūtiņa’s interest in baking began after the birth of her daughter. “I really like working in the kitchen, but I had never baked sweets before. When my daughter was born, I set myself a goal – to make a cake every month. I looked for different recipes, tried them out, and realized that baking is really meditative,” she explained.

Entering the kitchen, the surrounding hustle and bustle of the house becomes quieter, so cake baking quickly became a beloved pastime for the then-new mother.

“On my birthday, my friends, who are also flight attendants, gave me a sweets masterclass in Riga, because they knew I liked to cook and it would be an opportunity for me to secure out of the house,” she continued.

She enjoyed the masterclass so much that it inspired her to continue learning and mastering various confectionery skills on her own. She now has a collection of cooking magazines and books, something she previously wouldn’t have imagined.

“I used to say that I would never bake cakes in my life. I like to eat cakes myself, and if I eat a tasteless cake, I’ll be angry that I’ve eaten so many unnecessary calories. If they are tasty, I don’t regret any of them. That’s why I like sweets that are small but so delicious,” Rūtiņa said.

She was encouraged to start her small business after winning a cake baking competition at the “Rīga Food” exhibition, titled “Generational Heritage.”

“I started my speech by saying that I don’t have this generational heritage, because no one in my family has ever done it, but each of us – we can be the beginning of this generational heritage, so I believe and hope that maybe something will start to develop from me, that I will have laid the foundations,” she said.

Currently, her treats are made at home. Her kitchen is equipped with a large refrigerator with glass doors and a freezer. As Rūtiņa plans to expand production, she is looking for new, larger premises for the business.

Despite her success with the bakery, she isn’t ready to give up her work in the aviation industry entirely.

“I can’t depart aviation. If before it was my job, but this – my hobby, then now everything has changed a bit.

Currently, baking sweets is more like a job for me, but aviation – my hobby. Since all the home production work takes place at home, the job as a flight attendant has become a respite from everyday life, from home. Still, when I see a plane, I get butterflies in my stomach. Both of these jobs are ones that I do with real pleasure and satisfaction,” Rūtiņa explained.

The two careers complement each other. When traveling on longer assignments, Rūtiņa often takes the opportunity to attend various confectionery masterclasses abroad, expanding her horizons and offerings.

“If ‘Skriķu našķi’ house is ever built, the idea is that, as a flight attendant and having traveled to many countries and having the opportunity to live in this international environment, I will accept you there. Here are French sweets, here are Italian, here are Spanish. You don’t have to be in that country to taste its flavor. That is my dream – to take people to a world of flavors,” Rūtiņa concluded.

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